Saturday, May 18, 2013

PAYING customers?

First, the good news. Hechavarria remains above the Mendoza line even after going 0-4 in another loss before 13,444 announced customers. Placido Estevez has pointed out at Marlinmaniac.com (no relation) that Marlins are NOT dead last in one category -- attendance. The latest stats at espn.com show the Marlins with 18,076 average home attendance, ahead of Tampa Bay at 17,936 and Cleveland 15,649. That Tampa Bay number shows how listless baseball fans are in the Sunshine State, since TB fields an interesting team in a tough division and does so by making smart front-office decisions (locking in young players early, among other things). But here's the thing: I'll bet you that in ticket revenue, the Rays and Indians are far ahead of the Marlins. My buddy Orlando and I purchased upper deck outfield seats for opening night for $25.50, including various online handling fees. For that we got a free extra game, which we claimed Thursday night, sitting in the sixth row in section 14, which is behind home plate. If we hadn't had that deal, we could have taken advantage of seniors Thursday (seniors being anyone 55 over over), which would have also gotten us free tickets. My friend JS, with ex-husband, her ex-husband's other ex-wife and the other ex-wife's fiance, also attended Thursday night -- all on free tickets. Our hot dog guy (great $3 sausages east of the ballpark) told Orlando that he and many people in the neighborhood have been approached by a Marlins rep and offered free tickets. You can also get 2-1 deals on Tuesdays, kids eating free on Wednesdays, etc. So the number of customers paying full value for a seat must be astonishingly low. After Friday's 9-2 loss to the Diamondbacks, the Marlins are 11-31. The worst team of the modern era, the 40-120 1962 Mets, were 12-30 at this point.